Reissue of 1987 political folk-punk debut with eleven bonus tracks

In the mid-80s, the Los Angeles-born, UC Santa Cruz-educated Carmaig De Forest was shuttling up and down the California coast, strumming an electric ukulele and singing his pithy, politically-pointed songs. His delivery suggested the emotional spittle of Elvis Costello and Gordon Gano (the latter of whom took in De Forest as an opening act for the Violent Femmes), the tuneful monotone of Lou Reed and Jonathan Richman, and the iconoclastic musical freedom of his producer, Alex Chilton. De Forest takes frequent, very personal aim at then-president Ronald Reagan, wishing for age to claim him, scathingly recounting his sins alongside those of Hitler and Jim Jones, and imagining their fiery afterlife on “Hey Judas.” He sings of corporate hegemony and decaying social liberties, and offers the sideways love song “I’d Be Delighted.” De Forest plays his ukulele on most of the tracks, but it takes a back seat to his songs, voice and the band. Chilton’s production, and the backing of Chilton on guitar, Greg Freeman on bass and Eddie Sassin drums are at turns funky, jazzy, rocking and blue, adding flesh to De Forest’s songs and amplify the edginess of his idiosyncratic performances.

Omnivore’s reissue supplements the album’s original fifteen tracks (which include a raggedly rocking cover of “Secret Agent Man”) with material from the album’s aborted first pass, a leftover from the completed session, and seven contemporaneous live tracks recorded at San Francisco’s Paradise Lounge and Kennel Club. The additional material includes covers of the nineteenth century murder ballad “Bank of the Ohio,” the pop standard “”One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” and the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” alongside original material that didn’t make it to the debut album. The live tracks are especially compelling as De Forest feeds off the club atmosphere, and the band stretches out the short studio productions with solos. Pat Thomas’ detailed liner notes include fresh interviews with De Forest, Freeman, Gordon Gano, and others, telling the story of how the album came to be and the scene in which it was set. It’s been thirty years since this album was in print, and it’s as fresh today as it was in 1987. [©2017 Hyperbolium]